Sarah N. Mess served in the US Army with the 42nd Field Hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993. Her surgical unit handled mass casualties, hunkered down under rocket attacks, and Mess was pulled from operating room duty on occasion to carry a rifle on convoy security duty amid a UN humanitarian mission that disintegrated into full bore war.
“Coming home, I felt disconnected and invisible,” she told students at a New Jersey middle school during a classroom visit 20 years later. “Combat Paper NJ helps a community of veterans who have experienced these situations. War doesn’t leave you—it haunts you, so this program eases the burden. We all have experiences that we don’t necessarily know how to process.”
One of the first two women to be treated for PTSD at the Lyons NJ VA Combat PTSD unit, Sarah Mess is a mother, wife, Combat Paper maker and Warrior Writer. Her work is featured in Warrior Writers fourth anthology and has appeared in a number of Combat Paper gallery shows in New Jersey and at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine.
Selections of Sarah Mess’ art work will appear in “Combat Paper & Beyond,” an art exhibition running June 18 through July 9 at the Puffin Cultural Forum, 20 Puffin Way, Teaneck, NJ. The art show grand opening is Saturday, June 18 at 4 pm.
The exhibit explores the vision of the Combat Paper Project through innovative artwork created by veterans and non-veterans. Multi-media work by Eli Wright is featured with additional works by award-winning artists Jim Fallon, David Keefe, Rachel Heberling, Elisabeth Smolarz, Nate Lewis, Frank Wagner, Ron Erikson and others.
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Combat Paper art work by Sarah Mess
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